Seed to Seed by Susan Ashworth is
the Bible of seed saving, you need it

Caleb uses Bloodmeal, and Bone Meal
to “fertilize” his plants

Caleb sprays vinegar to kill
weeds, you can make your own vinegar by filling a 5 gallon bucket with
apples, leave for 6 weeks and pour off the vinegar.

3. You must
keep track of the variety of seed

Name of variety is essential to
know when it grows seasonally and in what climate.

If you aren’t going to keep
track, don’t participate. The work will be wasted. We won’t know what
season to plant the seeds.

Make a map or diagram of your
garden and label (must keep track in the house on paper) Any garden markers won’t be reliable

Separate your plants so they don’t
confuse you when harvesting seed

4. Canned
seed packages for emergency

Will spoil in the can

Take out and put in freezer

Re-fridgerated seeds last for 3-5
years

For seeds to last forever, you must
freeze them, or grow them and save the seeds

Low moisture and low temperature
are needed for long term storage

Thoroughly dry seed first before
storing

Lettuce
(not spinach)

You can cut to eat and it will
grow back

Schools of thought on lettuce
isolation

1. Extremely strict isolation 0%
crossover—50 ft apart

2. 0.1 crossover ok

any kind of lettuce, side by
side, will be 99.9% pure, acceptable

Don’t eat some, let them grow for
seed

Will grow 4 ½ ft tall

When the seed heads first appear (some
dandelion like flowers) cut off the whole thing, put upside down in paper
bag for 2 weeks. 80% of the seeds will
come off into the bag. Rub between hands back into the bag.

Label bag!

Soil must be 450 for seed
germination, so start indoors if too cold.

When lettuce goes to seed, they
all look alike so you need to have a good diagram

Peas & Beans

·Leave
some pods to dry on the vine, done—couple of months from when it stops
producing. Shell. Leave the 1st ones to mature to dry. The first fruits are the most prolific seeds.

·Peas
don’t like a lot of water when sprouting.

·You
can plant your peas outside on St Patricks day without any protection.

Beans

·Pole
and bush types, pole is much more prolific. Must be propped up as soon as dry,
put in freezer 3 days to kill bugs before storing.

·Each
seed has a membrane around the seed with natural chemicals that prevent
immediate germination. Place 3 days in sun in plastic container covered with
plastic wrap. Rinse, dry on wax paper, store, or:

·Scoop
out seeds onto a paper towel and dry somewhere warm. These seeds will germinate about 1 week later
than the method that removed the membrane.

Potatoes

Produce flowers that produce
seeds. We don’t use them because they cross pollinate. We use genetic
clones. Pieces of potato with eyes.

Upcoming Classes and Events

Mapleton Ready is providing a free winter gardening class by Caleb Warnock, author of Backyard Winter Gardening. It will cover among other things: hot beds, the best winter varieties to grow, and hoop houses.

How to Become a Member

If you would like to become a member of the Utah Seed Exchange you will need to:

1. Commit to learning and actively saving seeds, at least one new variety a year. You must test your seeds for purity by growing a few and matching them to the parent plant before you share them with anyone.

2. Become familiar with the concepts of seed saving. Please catch up with the information and classes that have been taught. They are listed under the 'Pages' section on the right. Go through the pages and read and watch the information.

3. You will need to own and reference 'Seed to Seed' by Suzanne Ashworth (amazon.com) and it is recommended that you own and read 'The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneer' by Caleb Warnock which is a great book on seed saving in Utah.

When you have done these things, email me your request for membership at utahseedexchange@gmail.com and let me know that you have completed the requirements.